Shawn Hammond
Rich Osweiler
Andy Ellis
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A: Former Living Colour
4-stringer Muzz Skillings
(below, second from left). He
didn’t just funk up Vernon
Reid’s manic riffs—his
musical sensibilities imbued
the first two LC albums with a
rare buoyancy and vitality.
A: John Paul Jones. The
unshakable backbone of Led
Zeppelin that he created and
fed with Bonzo has yet to see
an equal by another rhythm
power-duo, so I’ve always
been curious why his rocklegend status doesn’t seem
to be at the same level as his
three mates.
A: Free was a glorious rock
ensemble that fired on all
cylinders, but it was the late
Andy Fraser’s nimble bass
lines that glued Paul Kossoff’s
Les Paul to Paul Rodgers’
raspy vocals. Just listen to
Fraser’s groovin’ fretwork
following Kossoff’s solo in
“Mr. Big.”
Current obsession:
Whitney’s Light Upon the
Lake. Between Max Kakacek’s
clean, imaginative guitar work
and drummer Julien Ehrlich’s
falsetto vocals, this new
record is chock-full of soulful
tunes that harken back to
really groovy ’70s soft rock,
but with a decisive edginess.
Current obsession:
When I saw this 1982 8-string
squareneck resonator guitar
on eBay, I didn’t hesitate for
a moment. Built by Richard
Deneve in Pennellville, New
York, this koa-and-spruce
beauty rings like a bell.
Current obsession:
A New Wave of Violence, the
new LP from Head Wound
City—which features the
Blood Brothers’ Cody Votolato
and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick
Zinner on guitar—is a
gluttonous feast of angular
riffs, anarchic feedback, and
festering dysfunction.
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